A Different Shade of Black
by Sinson
Summary: Sirius Black, a boy that despises the beliefs of his pureblood Slytherin family, is starting his first year at Hogwarts School. Follow his journey through the barrier and onto the train, where he meets new friends and new rivals.


**Disclaimer:** J.K. Rowling is an absolutely fabulous author. I would never want to steal from her. The quotes that you recognize are HERS- not mine. Hehehe, now that we've got that cleared up... let us proceed.

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Sirius had never walked through the barrier before. His mother had never allowed him to come along when his cousins started Hogwarts, and truthfully, now he was quite nervous. He was watching his older cousin Narcissa run through the barrier, when he saw a girl that looked around his age with flaming red hair. She had a look of confusion on her freckled face. Looking at that, along with the fact that she was in jeans and a sweatshirt, he guessed that she was a muggleborn witch that did not know how to get onto the platform. He saw to his fright that she was making her way towards his mother, hoping to ask for help. He opened his eyes wide in panic and gestured her away. She frowned before glowering at him and walking in the opposite direction with her head held high. He felt a bit unkind, but he knew that his mother might literally kill him for interacting with a muggleborn. And why did she glare at him like that? Hopefully he had not begun a grudge with someone before even entering the platform. 

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the naturally vulgar voice of his mother exclaim, "Sirius Black! You get over here right now! I will not have you mixing with the wrong sorts of people!" He saw her standing in a corner; her hands close by her side, as though touching anything would contaminate her.

He sighed and made his way over to her; his cousins had already left. Before his mother could signal anything to him, he broke at full speed towards the barrier with his eyes closed, praying to Merlin that he had not missed the target and gone off on a tangent. Thankfully, he had not. He looked at the Hogwarts Express in awe, taking in the colorful and lively surroundings. He tried to get onto the train quickly, not wanting to have to even glimpse at his mother's face again. Yet right as he put his first foot onto the step, he heard her yell, "Send a letter when you get into Slytherin! _Alright_?"

Stupid woman.

He ignored her and continued the difficult task of getting his heavy school trunk onto the train. He groaned as he felt her grip his wrist, a sharp fingernail digging into his skin.

"I have had enough of your disrespect. I _said_, send me a letter when you get into _Slytherin_. You hear me boy?" Her voice was seemingly calm, but held a shade of malice to it, only recognizable to him.

Sirius nodded weakly and finally managed to clamber onto the train. Slytherin House seemed so awful to him. All they did was have twisted conversations about blood. It sickened him. Unfortunately however, he knew that if he did not get into Slytherin (fat chance _that_ would happen), he would be looked upon with shame. To some extent he did not care what his family thought of him, but if he became something other than a Slytherin, there really could be trouble.

Sirius lifted his head up, and it took him a moment to realize that he had just been wandering aimlessly around the aisles of the train for over ten minutes. He saw to his dismay that his cousin Bellatrix was standing in front of him, tapping her foot and looking at him with contempt.

"What happened to your face?" he garbled, happy to be away from the wretched woman known as his mother.

He saw her jawbone twitch before saying, "I rather not speak to you in school too, but your _mother_ wanted me to make sure you did not converse with anyone … unpleasant." She blew a jet-black strand of hair out of her face, as though she had matters more important to deal with than talking to him.

"_You're_ unpleasant, so stop talking to _me_," Sirius said cheekily, regretting it almost at once. He was not scared of his cousin, but seeing as he was standing in a train, right outside the compartment that her friends were in, with a wand that he did not know how to work, he did feel a bit uneasy. He saw her face contort, and was half scared that she would whip out her wand, but luckily a dirty look sufficed. She trudged back into her compartment without looking back. Sirius hazily made out the words, "I can't believe he's related to me," through the compartment door. He should have known that his mother would put his cousins up to watching him and sending her letters about his actions.

It took Sirius about five more minutes to find a decent-looking compartment. He was in no mood to sit with any Slytherins and terrorize kind people, and was glad to finally find one that had only a few moral looking individuals. He sat opposite a boy with extremely messy black hair and wire-rimmed glasses. He looked around. On his right was a boy that seemed too engrossed in a book to notice his entrance. Sitting in a corner seat next to the window, was the red haired girl that he had seen earlier.

"Oh no. It's her," He said weakly, not realizing that he had whispered out loud.

"You _know_ her?" the black haired boy whispered in awe.

"No. I just saw her before, and I don't think she likes me too much. She was going to ask my m-"

"Her hair is so _red_," the black haired boy interrupted, his eyes as round as galleons, "And so wavy and long and _cool_."

Sirius raised his eyebrow before grinning at the boy's bluntness.

"Yep. Red hair, wavy," he said.

"She's so _pretty. _I wonder if she likes me," the boy muttered, gazing transfixed at her face.

Sirius shrugged his shoulders. This conversation was slightly weird. Yet, despite the fact that he had never met an eleven-year-old boy that seemed so deeply infatuated with a girl, and despite the fact that he had barely exchanged two words with him, he was kind of starting to enjoy this company. The boy seemed genuine to him. Of course, compared to his family, everyone looked like genuine people, so he couldn't assume anything.

"So, the name is James by the way. First year," the boy said grinning and ruffling his hair, looking away from the red- haired girl.

"I'm Sirius," he said back, right as the compartment opened and a lanky boy with extremely greasy hair stepped in. He sat beside the girl and seemed to be consoling her about something. The black haired boy- James- did not seem to notice. He was too busy playing the air drums and whistling to a song that Sirius was sure he had heard once before his mother forbade him to listen to the _Wizarding Wireless Network_.

Sirius looked out the window for a few moments. The red- haired girl seemed to be crying about something, and the greasy haired boy was patting her on the shoulder. He heard him say something about how he wished she would be in Slytherin. Sirius turned around right as he heard James say, "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

Sirius looked hesitant before adding, "My whole family have been in Slytherin."

"Blimey," James said smirking, "and I thought you seemed all right!"

Sirius grinned, his confident side coming through, "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

He laughed as James brandished an invisible sword.

"Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad."

The greasy haired boy made some sort of weird chuckle-like noise before James crossed his arms and said, "Got a problem with that?"

"No. If you'd rather be brawny than brainy."

"Where're you hoping to go seeing as you're neither?" Sirius replied, getting extremely annoyed with the boy.

James snickered and high-fived Sirius.

"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment." It was the red-haired girl speaking this time. She gave them both death glares (_what was with those glares?_), before stalking off, the greasy haired boy- Severus- at her heels.

James seemed to have momentarily forgotten that he liked her, for he joined Sirius in mocking, "Oooooo," as they passed. The girl flipped her long hair before closing the compartment door.

James, extremely caught up in the moment, shouted, "See ya, Snivellus!" right as the door slammed. Sirius grinned and the two boys laughed for a little while. James seemed quite proud of his nickname for Severus.

After they had ganged up on _Snivellus_, the boys seemed to have gained each other's friendship. The rest of the train ride seemed to pass in a jiffy. Sirius and James talked about their favorite Quidditch teams and broomsticks. Sirius amused him with stories about his mum, making sure to not completely enlighten him on how engrossed his family was in the Dark Arts in case James decided to place him in that category as well. He told him about how she threw a fit when she found out that he collected Chocolate Frog cards, and that one of Dumbledore was in the collection. She had burned it.

"She burned it?"

"Yep. Enjoyed it too. Quite frightening to tell you the truth. She has this really creepy evil laugh thing."

"Blimey. No offense mate, but your mum seems like a troll."

"No, you've gotten it wrong. She _is_ a troll."

James laughed loudly yet again, and finally stopped when the boy that was reading spoke to them for the first time.

"We're nearing Hogwarts. I think we should change soon." His voice was kind of soft, almost hesitant, and for the first time, Sirius and James had caught a glimpse of the boy's face. There were small bags under his eyes and he had some dried out scratches below his left ear. The boy must have caught them staring, because he turned around hurriedly and pretended to be rummaging his bag for his robes.

"I'm James by the way. And this is Sirius. Are you a first year too?"

The boy seemed to be surprised that he had been spoken to, for it took him a few seconds to respond, "Yeah, um- yes. My name is Remus Lupin."

Sirius replied, "Nice to meet you Remus," noting how awkward it was to be addressing someone for the first time after hours of sitting within a few feet of them.

Remus smiled before stating in a stronger voice, "I think we actually do have to change- we're reaching the school in," he consulted his watch, "about ten minutes."

The boys changed into their robes and talked for the last few minutes about the Sorting ceremony and the Houses. Remus just listened at first, but gradually came into the conversation, sharing some information he had read in Hogwarts, A History.

As everybody departed the train and as the First Years lumbered into the boats that would take them to the castle, Sirius smiled. He had honestly never had so much fun before. True, it was only talking and joking around, but it was a new feeling for him. It was nice to talk to people that did not know about his family heritage. It was nice to talk to people that liked him for him and not for his blood. He was delighted that he had made two friends, but with a pang of sadness he realized that they might not want to be associated with him anymore once he became a Slytherin. He heard James, Remus, and a pudgy little boy that had followed them onto their boat talking excitedly about the Sorting. James was again confidently stating his desire to be in Gryffindor. Sirius looked off into the darkness.

As he heard the rest of the first years talking about their new school, he observed the dark water rippling below the boat. The brisk September wind blew his dark hair into his face, and he felt his robes billowing around him. He watched Hogwarts castle loom closer and closer, and even though he felt scared, and sad, and nervous, and about fifty other emotions, he gave himself a resolute smile. The Sorting _would_ come; there was no way to avoid that. He would just have to learn to embrace his future, whatever the outcome may be. With that, he waited until the boats came to a complete stop, before stepping out with the other boys and walking into the Castle for the first time.

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Well, there we go. Hopefully it was an enjoyable read. I am adding one more chapter to this, and depending on how that goes, I will add another.

Review if you can!


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